Game 32, Yankees at Mariners

DMZ · May 12, 2007 at 6:10 pm · Filed Under Game Threads 

7:05, KSTW. DeSalvo v Batista.

AL starters, as a group: 4.73 ERA, 944 IP, 1031 H, 124 HR, 309 BB, 637 K
or 1.03 H/IP, .13 HR/IP, .33 BB/IP, .67 K/IP

Batista: 5.70 ERA, 36.1 IP (36.3), 44 H, 6 HR, 9 BB, 21 K
or 1.2 H/IP, .17 HR/IP, .25 BB/IP, .58 K/IP

That doesn’t include park adjustments, defense, or anything. Now, that seems like it’s not far off an average starter. But the ERA would make him a below-average starter in Tampa Bay (worst ERA in MLB), the strikeout rate is right in line with the 2nd-worst team in baseball at striking out opposing batters (the Mariners), and the home run rate… well, the team that’s given up the most home runs, Toronto, has a rate about 10% lower.

What I’m saying is that while Batista hasn’t given up 90 runs in the first inning to attract a lot of attention to himself, he isn’t good. He’s not even average. He kind of sucks so far, in fact, and there’s no way the M’s signed him to a three year, $25m deal for him to put up these kind of numbers.

DeSalvo’s last good season, if you’re curious, was in 2005, when in the second of three stints in Trenton he put up some decent numbers. Their rotation essentially wiped out from by injuries and Igawa’s ineffectiveness, the Yankees have been throwing out guys like Rasner (with 5 starts, he’s behind only Andy Pettitte), Chase Wright, Jeff Karstens, and tonight, DeSalvo. As a unit, their cannon fodder has been more effective than HoRam, Weaver, and Batista, who combined cost the Mariners over $18m (and Rafael Soriano).

Comments

90 Responses to “Game 32, Yankees at Mariners”

  1. JMHawkins on May 12th, 2007 8:28 pm

    A-Rod is a right handed hitter. Nothing about SafeCo was designed around the wishes of right handed hitters.

    And Batista, though not really as bad as his performance tonight, is not worth 3/$25M. Good grief, if $8M/yr the going rate for back of the rotation veteran starters now?

  2. SexsonPower on May 12th, 2007 8:31 pm

    bastista, ho-ram, weaver…..Bavasi needs to be fired! Why can’t the m’s see how horrible these desicions are already!!

    i feel sick inside just thinking about these 3 pitchers

  3. David* on May 12th, 2007 8:32 pm

    Is Eric O’Flaherty a potential starter or is he condemned to walk the face of the earth as a middle reliever?

  4. rockjr13 on May 12th, 2007 8:38 pm

    53

    He was originally drafted as a possible starter, but he was injured throughout his early minor league years, and I believe the organization decided that a relief role would be the best way to keep him healthy.

  5. DMZ on May 12th, 2007 8:43 pm

    The “all you can eat” buffet at the Long Ball Lounge makes me think that that amount would be pretty low, actually. That is one unappealing buffet.

  6. David* on May 12th, 2007 8:44 pm

    Thanks….he’s looking like he’s a better option than any of our other 4 #5 starters.

  7. pablothegreat on May 12th, 2007 8:57 pm

    That was a pentagon, not a rhombus.

  8. DMZ on May 12th, 2007 8:58 pm

    One of the things I like about Sims, and time will tell if this is real, or what, but he sounds a hundred times less rehearsed, like he’s having a good time just being in the box, even if his straight man is Blowers. That comment about Cleveland made me crack up.

  9. Mike G. on May 12th, 2007 9:04 pm

    Sims is kind of a dork but it’s been a breath of fresh air.

  10. planB on May 12th, 2007 9:07 pm

    Kind of? lol… but yeah I like him too

  11. Mariners_World_Series_Bound on May 12th, 2007 9:07 pm

    That was a very gritty walk. Bloomquist is such a patient hitter.

  12. ahhruff on May 12th, 2007 9:11 pm

    So Dream Weaver’s FIP is 5.35 & xFIP is 4.9

    HoRam’s FIP is 4.97 & his xFIP is 5.74

    The general consensus I’m seeing is the jury is still out on HoRam, but Weaver’s signing has been written off as a complete abortion.

    Yet it would appear using xFIP you could argue that HoRam is worse than Weaver. Is this a flaw with xFIP, because it doesn’t seem like too many people are lining up to make that argument.

  13. Josh on May 12th, 2007 9:14 pm

    If you aren’t in the general area of a major league pitcher, your [x]FIP will not be accurate.

    I could go out there and pitch 20 innings and my ERA would probably be in the hundreds, my [x]FIP, not nearly as bad.

  14. Josh on May 12th, 2007 9:15 pm

    How do you walk Bloomquist on four pitches and give Vidro a 3/4 night with 2 of his 3 doubles on the season?

  15. DMZ on May 12th, 2007 9:21 pm

    pablothegreat’s comment affects in-game commentary!

  16. Mike G. on May 12th, 2007 9:23 pm

    Blowers, bless his heart, was still unconvinced

  17. DKCecil on May 12th, 2007 9:23 pm

    That was a very girly throw, George.

  18. DMZ on May 12th, 2007 9:24 pm

    That’s because Blowers believes that numbers all even out. So a figure can’t have any number of sides… it’ll round off soon

  19. AQ on May 12th, 2007 9:25 pm

    Great Ghost of Steve Sax, what was that?

  20. pablothegreat on May 12th, 2007 9:34 pm

    On Dave Sims and Mike Blowers:

    The only thing I care about is if I can answer in the affirmative to this question–Are Sims and Blowers significantly better than Rizza and Hendu? The answer to that question is clearly “Yes,” so I’m happy with them.

  21. pablothegreat on May 12th, 2007 9:36 pm

    I mean Rizzs.

  22. enazario on May 12th, 2007 9:38 pm

    [Rizzs]

  23. fishiam on May 12th, 2007 9:42 pm

    Sims: “Fastball … struck him out!” Flash to radar reading: 79 MPH. I pray for Reitsma sake that wasn’t his fastball.

  24. yofarbs on May 12th, 2007 9:44 pm

    Too much grit in Willie’s glove.

  25. pablothegreat on May 12th, 2007 9:44 pm

    Willie! The scorekeeper called that a base hit? That was an error.

  26. Mike G. on May 12th, 2007 9:44 pm

    [insert gritty comment here]

  27. enazario on May 12th, 2007 9:45 pm

    that was clearly not a fastball – he was so far ahead of it.

  28. enazario on May 12th, 2007 9:46 pm

    another fastball by reitsma!

  29. IdahoInvader on May 12th, 2007 9:53 pm

    Is it alright if we actually do something w/ RISP today?

    Now that another rookie, no namer is out of the game, we should have a shot.

    SIGH

  30. IdahoInvader on May 12th, 2007 9:53 pm

    Ugh

    Why did I even bother to ask?

  31. Mike G. on May 12th, 2007 9:56 pm

    Hmmmm… well that kind of sucked. At least that L was a team effort.

  32. JMHawkins on May 12th, 2007 10:42 pm

    The general consensus I’m seeing is the jury is still out on HoRam, but Weaver’s signing has been written off as a complete abortion.

    Actually, the general consensus around my house is that HoRam is a disaster and Weaver is just a failed roll of the dice. HoRam cost us a good reliever. Weaver cost a bunch of money that the team obviously wasn’t going to spend on anything useful anyway. Next year, Weaver is 100% off the books and we pay no further for him, but Soriano will still be in a Braves uniform.

    I think it was possible Weaver could have turned out to be a decent #4 or #5. He had been a functional ML pitcher previously in his career, but clearly he’d lost too much velocity on his fastball (maybe he really is hurt and they aren’t just playing roster games with the DL stint). For $8M, he would have been way overpriced even if he had worked out, but it was a one year deal signed late enough that there wasn’t anyone else left worth that money, and if they didn’t spend it in 2007, I doubt it would have been added to the 2008 budget.

    HoRam has very little chance of ever being anything better than replacement level, and they gave up a good reliever to get him. With Soriano gone, the M’s then had to bring Morrow up as the RH setup guy instead of leaving him in Tacoma to work on becoming a profession Starter. I’m not as pessimistic as Dave about Morrow’s ultimate future as a starter, but at this point even if he does convert back to starting, it’s unlikely he’ll be ready for the rotation in 2008, and we desperately need starters (duh). HoRam has ended up costing us a reliever and a starter, and he has no more upside than Baek, or any of a dozen marginal starters wandering between teams.

    Sorry, what were we talking about?

  33. NBarnes on May 13th, 2007 12:50 am

    What 82 said.

  34. Tom on May 13th, 2007 1:32 am

    Well, I must say that watching Batista pitch was like “Groundhog Day.”

    EVERY SINGLE PITCH was a BELT HIGH FASTBALL.

    It’s truly amazing that Bavasi’s acquisitions of Batista, HoRam, and Weaver have actually made the roto WORSE than before when we had Meche and Pineiro.

    Someone please fire this man NOW.

  35. Crushgroovin on May 13th, 2007 8:35 am

    Howard Lincoln goes first, word is the folks back in Japan aren’t real happy with how he is running their franchise.

    Then Bavasi
    Then Grover

    New GM Lee Pelekoudas

  36. AuburnM on May 13th, 2007 8:40 am

    I am also very worried about the rotation, but how about talking about the future rather than the past?

    What are the right moves now? Dumping Weaver and giving Baek a real shot is a good move.

    How many more chances do Batista and HoRam get? If you give up on them what are your options? Woods? Morrow?, Feierabend? O’Flaherty? Are there realistic trades out there?

  37. Karen on May 13th, 2007 9:44 am

    msb: so, are there any Seattle-area stores that sell out-of-favor electronics? I have a father looking for a small tv/vcr combo, which are oddly hard to find these days.

    I have an extra and available 13″ all-in-one TV/VCR with remote, white case, that my nephew is currently using b/c his old TV broke down (i.e., barely used), but his mom is getting him a flat screen TV for HS graduation. It cost me ~$100.

    Trouble is, it’s here with me on the north coast of Oregon. Long way to go for a $100 TV…. 🙂

  38. John D. on May 13th, 2007 10:20 am

    SAFECO wasn’t designed for anyone with a bat in his hand. (See # 45, # 51, and others.)
    The early spin exhulted in the cavernous character of the place, carrying on about the resurrection of the three-base hit.
    (See also the following column:
    http://tinyurl.com/2jvn6b
    [Some think that it was purposely designed that way to discourage high-priced free agent hitters from wanting to come here.]

  39. joser on May 13th, 2007 10:25 am

    msb says:
    so, are there any Seattle-area stores that sell out-of-favor electronics? I have a father looking for a small tv/vcr combo, which are oddly hard to find these days.

    Shipping might be a bitch, but there’s no lack of them on Amazon. Also, if you don’t mind “pre-owned” you might try Craigslist — there are a couple on there right now in the Seattle area for ~$20.

  40. msb on May 13th, 2007 11:56 am

    I saw all the ones on Amazon, etc. but they seem to be ‘re-conditioned’, and as that is what he has right now, prob. not all that much of an upgrade 🙂

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